China
is mulling plans for a facility to handle returning moon rock samples as part
of a step-by-step plan to explore the lunar surface with robotic probes.

China?s
multi-step program calls for lunar orbiters to scout the moon, followed by a
soft landing on of the surface using an automated lunar rover to reconnoiter
the crater-pocked landscape. That rover would then be followed by the touchdown of a lunar lander to collect bits and pieces of
the moon and rocket them back to Earth for detailed analysis by Chinese
specialists.

A
delegation of Chinese
space experts touched upon those future moon plans and presented results
from the country?s Chang?e 1 lunar orbiter earlier this month at the 41st Lunar
and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Texas.

In 1979, a Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility was built to
serve as the chief repository for the returned Apollo samples. It was
constructed to provide permanent storage of the lunar sample collection in a
physically secure and non-contaminating environment.

As of now, there are few details about what progress is being
made in China to set up a laboratory to handle incoming lunar samples, be it by
robotic means or perhaps by way of human transport.

?I am aware that there have been inquiries about our curation
of lunar samples and I infer that they are interested in our procedures,? said
Gary Lofgren, a senior planetary scientist and the Lunar Curator at the Johnson
Space Center.

Lofgren said that he was not able to make direct contact with
China authorities keen on setting up a lunar receiving lab due to procedures
that have to be met for foreign nationals to visit NASA. ?I anticipate that we
will communicate in the future though there are no specific plans at present,?
he said.

Microwave moon

China is now
preparing a Chang?e-2
lunar orbiter
slated for an October of this year sendoff. According to earlier statements by
Chinese space officials, the missions in the following two phases will be to
conduct a robotic lunar landing via Chang?e-3 in 2013 and an automated sample
return in 2017 by Chang?e-4, a spacecraft system capable of hauling back to
Earth some 4 pounds (2 kg) of lunar samples.

Jingshan Jiang, deputy
principal investigator of Chang?e-1and the principal
investigator of the lunar orbiter?s microwave sounder, confirmed China?s
multi-phased lunar schedule. He is from the Center for Space Science and
Applied Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Jingshan discussed the ?microwave moon? as seen by
Chang?e-1, an investigation that included a look at helium-3 deposits in the lunar
surface as well as probing the presence of water
on the moon.

Also
presenting at LPSC was Liu Dunyi, apparently the key
sparkplug behind efforts to set-up China?s lunar sample curatorial facility.
Liu is the Chairman of China?s national committee of the International Geoscience Program (IGCP) and also holds high positions in
China?s space exploration program.

Chinese space
scientists took part in the pre-LPSC Microsymposium
51, sponsored by Brown University, The Vernadsky
Institute of Russia, and the Brown/MIT NASA Lunar Science Institute.

China?s long march

?It was fascinating
to see scientists from China [at both meetings] enthusiastically outline their
plans for rapidly upcoming lunar landers, rovers, and
sample return missions, all in preparation for having Chinese taikonauts
explore the moon
in the near future,? said James Head, a leading planetary geologist in the
Department of Geological Sciences at Brown University in Providence, Rhode
Island.

?I have no doubt,?
Head told SPACE.com, ?that China is on a ?long march? to the Moon and I have
little doubt that taikonauts will successfully explore the moon, almost certainly
before the United States astronauts return.?

Ray
Arvidson, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished
University Professor at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, also
commented on China?s lunar
exploration ambitions.

?Planning
and implementing the lunar sample receiving lab is a logical part of the
aggressive Chinese program for lunar exploration,? Arvidson
said. He told SPACE.com that China?s current plans, as he understood them, are
to launch another lunar orbiter, then a robotic lunar rover, and then move onto
a robotic lunar sample return mission.

?In addition they have started participating in discussions for the
International Lunar Network (ILN) mission. And there is discussion of having a
launch and deep space transfer capability to Mars for robotic missions by
2013,? Arvidson added.

NASA is leading the ILN idea, a concept whereby landed
stations on the moon from multiple countries serve as nodes to collectively
form a large geophysical network of scientific instruments.

Leonard David has been reporting on
the space industry for more than five decades. He is past editor-in-chief of
the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines and has written
for SPACE.com since 1999.